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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24375328">binary heart</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacebard/pseuds/spacebard'>spacebard</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Wolf 359 (Radio)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Amnesia, Gen, Mentions of Character Death, angsty thoughts from hera, but isn't permanent amnesia basically death?, but it can be that way if you squint i guess, not specifically romantic ship, prose, spoilers for the finale, these are the questions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 00:55:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>566</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24375328</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacebard/pseuds/spacebard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>SPOILERS FOR THE FINALE!!!</p><p>-<br/>Hera tries to come to terms with her new crewmate and the loss of a friend.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Doug Eiffel &amp; Hera</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>binary heart</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>IM SORRY. this is weird and prosey and i've never done anything like this before. posted with very little editting and written entirely stream of consciousness. those are all the excuses i have for this. go forth and hurt.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>     Ones and Zeroes.</p><p>Ones and Zeroes.</p><p>          Ones and Zeroes.</p><p> </p><p>One Officer Eiffel lost himself to save them all.</p><p>     Zero Eiffels remained.</p><p> </p><p>This one was new.</p><p>He didn’t know about Star Wars.</p><p>He didn’t know about Hilbert or Decima.</p><p> </p><p>This one didn’t laugh like Eiffel did.</p><p>Zero.</p><p> </p><p>     He was empty.</p><p>     He was lost.</p><p> </p><p>He spent every waking moment listening to a man who had his voice but no longer existed.</p><p>Logs of Officer Eiffel.</p><p> </p><p>Logs of her best friend.</p><p> </p><p>This one wasn’t her best friend.</p><p>This one was new.</p><p>One.</p><p> </p><p>Sometimes he smiled and she saw the old one.</p><p>The one she knew.</p><p> </p><p>“Dear listeners….”</p><p>     “Dear listeners….”</p><p>          “This is Communications Officer Douglas Eiffel signing off.”</p><p>     “This is Communications Officer Douglas Eiffel coming to you from the Comms Room-”</p><p>“This is Doug Eiffel.”</p><p> </p><p>Who Eiffel was now seemed to have a hard time listening to those logs.</p><p>Who he was now winced with every bad joke or mean comment, with every dig against the Commander.</p><p>New Eiffel didn’t understand all those pop culture references Old Eiffel had made.</p><p> </p><p>He asked Hera about it sometimes.</p><p>Hera answered.</p><p> </p><p>They didn’t talk like they used to.</p><p>No “Hera, are you there?”</p><p>No “Darling”.          No “Sweetheart”.</p><p> </p><p>Maybe he sensed how she felt.</p><p>Maybe he tried to keep his distance.</p><p> </p><p>But it was like living with a ghost.</p><p> </p><p>     She wished they hadn’t programmed her to feel.</p><p>     Human emotions were so hard to deal with.</p><p>     Human emotions didn’t line up with ones and zeroes.</p><p> </p><p>One New Doug.</p><p>One man, innocent and new as a baby.</p><p> </p><p>No Officer Doug.</p><p>No man who survived alone in deep space for 193 days.</p><p> </p><p>00110001 00111001 00110011</p><p> </p><p>Ones and Zeroes.</p><p> </p><p>It was her fault.</p><p>     <em>Her Fault.</em></p><p> </p><p>She should have found a way to stop Dr. Pryce that didn’t take away what Eiffel had been.</p><p> </p><p>If you lost every memory.</p><p>Every facet of who you were.</p><p> </p><p>          Wouldn’t that be the same as dying?</p><p>          Did she kill her best friend?</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, Hera?” New Doug asks her suddenly.</p><p>She’d stopped paying attention.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, Doug?” She asks him, still adhering to the new rules of first names only.</p><p>It hurt to call him that. Hurt that it wasn’t really her Doug.</p><p> </p><p>“What was he like, really?” The empty man asks her.</p><p>“Renee keeps telling me that he was a great man… that he was brave, but… I think maybe she’s just telling me that to make me feel better. These logs don’t make him sound that way at all.</p><p> </p><p>“But you seemed to know him best, right? You were friends, weren’t you?”</p><p> </p><p>Hera let out a noise, a sigh. Not that she could breathe. Or exhale air. But she had a voice, and feelings.</p><p> </p><p>     Why did they make her this way?</p><p> </p><p>“Officer Eiffel was a lot of things. He was a little careless,</p><p>     lazy,</p><p>          sometimes he didn’t think fully before he did things or said things.</p><p>But those things that the Commander tells you are also true.</p><p>     He was brave.</p><p>          He survived against so many odds,</p><p>               he… gave up everything to save the world.</p><p>                    He sacrificed his memories, his life, for the greater good,” she pointed out.</p><p>“He had a way of hiding it, but he really was a good man. He was my best friend.”</p><p> </p><p>The empty man nodded. “Good man. Well.. yeah, guess that’s good.”</p><p> </p><p>     He went back to his tapes.</p><p>And Hera went back to her thoughts.</p><p><br/>         Ones and Zeroes.</p>
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